Your small business is first and foremost a business and is bound by the same business principles that every business is bound by.
To a large extent, the principles for starting and operating a successful business are the same whether your business is a small business or a Fortune 500 company.
You must have a product or service that people want or need. You must have a way of informing people who want or need your product or service that you have a particular product or service available.
You should also be able to get your product or service, for less than your full cost to market and provide the product or service.
Obviously, the larger and more complex your business is, the more complexities there will be, adding costs to the product or service you are selling.
But regardless of how complex your business is, the principles of what makes a business successful remain the same.
Even asking a few basic questions at the beginning of your business can have an exponential effect on the direction your business will take.
This is certainly true when starting a small business.
You already know the principles that go into creating a successful business. Now you must determine how to apply these principles to your particular situation.
The first item to consider is the location, which in this hypothetical example will be Cape Cod. Now, I have not done any in-depth research or study on this hypothetical business, but it is reasonable to assume that this business on Cape Cod would be largely dependent on the tourism dollars.
So the first thing you might think about is going in the direction of a product or service that would be of interest to tourists who are in your workplace. But you can never forget your local customer base, either.
It is good to note that the tourist season does not last all year, not even on Cape Cod. You will have to determine if you are going to close the store when the tourist season ends, or if you are going to include a product line or incorporate an element to your product line, which will not only attract tourist dollars, but will also be of continued interest to your local customer base outside of the tourist season.
So what product or service do people who visit or live on Cape Cod want or need? I do not know. That is for you to decide.
The point is, in a situation like the one I just described, an important aspect of your decision-making process will be determining whether your focus will be primarily on tourism, or primarily on local customers, or a combination of the two. . .
Your initial plans regarding your marketing depend on your answer to the first question.
Obviously, your marketing will be different for tourists than for locals. The differences may be subtle, but there will be differences depending on the product or service you provide and the group of potential customers you are targeting with your marketing message.
Regarding the third point that I mentioned at the beginning, the supply of your product or service will remain the same regardless of what your answer to the previous two points is.
As you can already see, the idea of starting your own small business takes on a whole new dimension based simply on the issue of location. In this example, the basic question of tourists vs. non-tourists can have a great impact on the entire direction of your business.
The time you spend thinking about how you will answer these questions before you begin will go a long way toward ensuring your success.
